[VIDEO]; @fatima

[dust_of_life]

[Fatima's life dictates that she has to carefully manage and regulate her appearance. It's a bit of a neurosis, really. She's had to dedicate much of the last few years to proving that she's every bit as capable and mature as a bunch of vampires who have seen more than a few centuries. The mortal girl is not going to sit at the kiddie table, thank you very much. Which means not looking like a kiddie.

She wears a lot of make up. Like, a lot. It's well done and attractive, certainly. But noticeably an inch thick. Her hair is pulled back in a braid today, draping over her left shoulder. But what really completes the "I'm not a child" look is the attitude. It's her carefully schooled expression, just the right amount of jaded blase, as if to say "I've seen too much to ever be wide-eyed again."

It's her first network post. She figures first impressions matter. Although this is not how she imagined greeting the network.]

Hey, Fatima Merali here.

[She's got a thick, West Coast accent. She even says her name in a disgustingly Americanized way.]

Los Angeles, 2009, for any of you keeping track of that kind of thing.

Listen. Has anyone seen or heard from Ray Palmer lately? It's like he just vanished.

Comments

[ragnarsson]

Only for the small farmers. But I was a prince.

[Ivar was aware of just how lucky he'd been growing up. He'd never known hunger, always had a roof over his head, and his family didn't treat him too awful. Well, most of the time.]

[dust_of_life]

A prince?

[Now there's a word that has a double meaning to Fatima.]

Should I be calling you by a title?

[ragnarsson]

My father was King of Denmark.

[Ragnar had risen from being a humble farmer to becoming the most famous Viking of the age. Ivar could only hope to surpass him.]

No. I lost the title when his first wife usurped my mother to become Queen. You only keep your title as long as someone doesn't overthrow you.

[In Viking culture, you kept what you killed.]

[dust_of_life]

[She's dealing with Hamlet. If only Auntie Diana were here right now. She'd just get such a kick out of it.

Whereas Arty would have a total history boner.]

I see.

[No condolences. There's nothing worse than pity.]

So what would you like me to call you then?

[ragnarsson]

[He's grateful to hear no condescending pity in her tone. Ivar hates that worse than anything.]

Just Ivar. Or Ivar the Boneless.

[The name that the legends and history books alike would remember him by.]

[dust_of_life]

Ivar.

The Boneless?

[She's heard of Viking names have little epitaphs like that. But she has to admit, this isn't one she would expect.]

[ragnarsson]

I didn't pick it. My father gave it to me.

[A name given in a moment of despair over his son being unable to walk. It had stuck.]

[dust_of_life]

Oh.

[That makes sense. As much of any of this. Maybe he earned it somehow? That's an ancient tradition.]

Mind if I ask why?

[ragnarsson]

Because I'm a cripple.

[He'd thought his son would never amount to much and that his quality of life would be awful. One of the few things Ragnar had ever been wrong about.]

[dust_of_life]

[Both eyebrows go way up. Not so much at the idea that someone might have problems. But the way he's so open about it.

That's...that's going to take some getting used to.]

Oh. Wow. Okay.

[ragnarsson]

[Ivar mistakes her shock for judgment, and just like that, a switch gets flipped. His face hardens and there's blazing anger coming out of his eyes.]

Do you have a problem with that?

[dust_of_life]

With someone being given a mean name because they have a physical problem?

It seems a little harsh. But that's from the point of view of my culture.

[ragnarsson]

[Though it doesn't seem like judgment, his tone is still a little frosty when he answers.]

I've been called far worse since then. Besides, I learned to own the name, not the other way around.

[dust_of_life]

[Fatima's quiet a moment.]

I think I understand that.

Probably better than most.

[She sighs.]

Where I come from, people make a lot of assumptions about someone named "Fatima." And they're not very nice.

[ragnarsson]

Why would they do that?

[He's never heard the name before, so he can't have any previous judgment in mind.]

[dust_of_life]

Because a lot of people with my name practice a particular religion.

And some assholes killed a bunch of people in the name of said religion.

Ergo, they assume I'm an asshole.

[ragnarsson]

Sounds like what Christians think of us Vikings. Barbarians that want nothing but to raid and kill. Of course, we fairly earned the reputation we got.

[dust_of_life]

[She sighs.]

Unfortunately, that same prejudice carried over to my time.

[ragnarsson]

I'm beginning to think the world didn't really change in a thousand years. It just got more robots.

[That's basically what he thinks of all this technology.]

[dust_of_life]

The world changes.

It's people who...don't.

[Also, who has robots? She wants robots.]